Dusty Memories and Painted Pictures
by ronny-of-yore
Summary: After the defeat of Akatsuki, Sakura re-evaluates her bond with Naruto and Sai. In doing so, she finds love to be a relative term, but one that applies differently in each case. A heartfelt Sai/Sakura/Naruto Friendship Oneshot.


_***SPOILER ALERT**: This is set sometime after the latest manga chapter (423) with my own spin on how the war of sorts ended. So if you do not follow the manga then please be cautioned in continuing. With that said, however, this is truly a Sai/Sakura/Naruto friendship fic. Well, I hope it makes someone smile like I did while writing it. Hope you enjoy. :)_

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_**Dusty Memories and Painted Pictures **_

Hinges creaked as a door was slowly pushed open, the woman on the other side having to cough from the musky smell assaulting her lungs from within.

The room filled with paintings meticulously placed on the four corners of the walls hadn't been occupied in months, the untouched layers of dust covering their glass frames being a pretty sound clue.

But she didn't need these visible reminders to tell her that the owner had been gone for a while. That slight ache in her chest when any of her friends were off on lengthy missions told her it was true.

Both Sai and Naruto volunteered for another pilgrimage like mission to the still healing country of Rain.

After the war that had ultimately forced its people against the allied alliance of Thunder, Wind, and Fire, the patch of land and its surviving inhabitants –no longer under Pein's rule- were still struggling to survive.

In an effort to help rehabilitate its economy and spirits, groups of shinobi from the surrounding areas volunteered to help rebuild. It was the first step in the peaceful treaty that had been forged after Akatsuki had been dismantled.

Sakura smirked as she picked up the bucket filled with cleaning supplies near her feet before crossing over the threshold. She had it on pretty good authority that Shikamaru had volunteered to go along with them after hearing a certain Sand sibling had volunteered as well.

She had to admit the way Shikamaru had scratched the end of his nose with a finger and said that his brain might be needed to help keep Naruto on track had been rather cute -even if it had been a bold face lie.

Heading toward the sink on the far wall of the one room apartment, Sakura shook her head thinking of the two who she just knew had a thing for each other. _Really, those two aren't fooling anyone but themselves._

Thinking of a certain bespectacled code breaker, Sakura inwardly snorted. _Sucks to be you._

Taking out the bottles of cleaner before letting the tap run into the blue plastic container, the kunoichi felt her lips melt into a tender smile as she thought of a certain kyuubi-container. Adding in a cap full of pine scented liquid that produced bubbles under the churning water, the kunoichi couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the way he had stepped up, being the one who had come up with the helpful plan of action in the first place.

_He really has matured._

Then her lips fell to a frown.

_Too bad a war had to make it so._

So much blood and loss during that time, so much destruction on both sides… Sakura shook her head stemming those thoughts from flowing like the turn of the tap beneath her fingers.

_Change never comes without consequences._ If she had learned anything in her entire time as a kunoichi, it was that.

Leaving the bucket and going about opening the small room's windows, Sakura's thoughts went to somewhat lighter venues.

Even though the great Copy Ninja had lost his sharingan, Kakashi was still a force to be reckoned. He even looked the same with his crooked headband covering what was no longer there.

However, even though the loss had only cut his abilities by a margin, something told her that losing the red and black swirling eye had troubled him emotionally. She caught him more times than not rubbing the metal and cloth fabric over the scarred socket with his dark gaze unseeing, like his mind was far away. She always wondered what he was thinking, but always left the aloof man to his thoughts.

She knew it wasn't right to try to pry into a man's life who obviously liked his privacy.

Gathering up the bedding next, Sakura took it and headed out the opened door to the little community laundry room down the hall with a box of detergent stuffed under an elbow.

Truth be told, her maid service of sorts wasn't the least bit mandatory, but she enjoyed doing it. With her skills being needed within their own walls to help in the recovery of their own people, Sakura didn't mind helping out. She had already finished Naruto's trash littered place and they were due back that afternoon. Besides, the kunoichi knew how it felt to come back to a lifeless room.

To be frank, it _sucked_.

She always hated coming home tired and exhausted to a smelly room that she had to clean just to sit down in, because usually all she wanted to do was crawl under those covers she had been day dreaming about during their trek home and sleep to her heart's content.

Besides, they were her boys and like a hen to her chicks, she liked taking care of them –even if she didn't necessarily like to admit it at times.

Stuffing the sheets and comforter into an empty machine, Sakura grinned.

Sai could still be a pompous jerk at times and really didn't know how to communicate effectively without raising someone's hackles, but even he had his good sides. After forcing the lid down onto the already churning contents, Sakura headed for the hall.

Once back inside Sai's dwelling, the kunoichi picked up the feather duster she had brought with her and started on the painting on the far wall by the door.

Cleaning off its surface with purposeful flicks of her wrist, Sakura looked over the abstract piece filled with a kaleidoscope of colors.

These early works of her teammate were always things that reminded her of their initial meeting.

A brow twitched at the memory. Things hadn't been pretty, that was for sure, but the smarmy idiot had brought it upon himself. There was no question about that.

Moving on to the next piece Sakura found herself smiling again at the hand drawn babbling brook they had ate beside on one of their missions together. She liked these types of paintings the best. She could actually understand them. And the bits of sunglowed scenery really did display Sai's artistic abilities to a Tee.

He had a gift. He really did.

The next painting however had made her frown. With the sweep of the brush Sakura looked into the scarred face of Sai's old mentor. However, only the right half of his face was shown –the left covered by a thick paste of black.

Dusting away the rest of the frame, Sakura thought over Sai's choice of shadowing. It wasn't hard to draw a conclusion. The man had been a two faced bastard, hiding his true ambition of power behind a guise of doing what he felt was right for the village as a whole.

Anyone who had turned Sai into an emotionless shell of himself was a monster in her book –even if he was only the commander of ROOT and not the men who had trained him. In the end, he had rightfully shown his true colors when he had tried to usurp Tsunade's place during the beginning chaos of the war.

Morbidly, Sakura found satisfaction in the way Sasuke had cut him in half with a lightning enhanced sword. The bastard reaped what he sowed. In the end Karma had come calling.

Moving to the next picture that happened to be another abstract, Sakura's thoughts turned to that of her first love. He was alive and well. She was thankful for that, even though he was no longer able to set foot in their village. Then again, she knew it wasn't something the man being the last of his clan wanted either.

Sasuke had done irreversible things and certain people of Konoha had done the same to him and his kin.

He had taken his revenge on the three who had pulled the strings behind the slaughter of his people, but he had also helped in destroying those who had wished to crush their village as well. He had been granted a reprieve for that alone with the words from the Godaime that as long as he kept out of the radar, he was free to live his life as he chose.

She didn't know when or if she would ever see him again, but Sakura was glad to know that he was well and no longer a questionable rogue. Still, her heart ached at the love that could never be. For, she was a Leaf kunoichi to the bone and would never leave the tall wooden walls around her…even though Sasuke had finally offered to take her along with him for his self discovering journey.

She had loved him once, but now she loved her village even more. She knew her place and it was right where she was, beside her family and friends.

The next picture she came upon broke the melancholy she had found herself in, a smile twitching at the corners of her lips.

It was another portrait, but this one much more lighthearted. It was a picture of Naruto with fox ears, a black painted nose and nine pieces of bent pipe-cleaner on his rear for tails -the then sixteen year old having dyed a green leotard brown to make for the rest of his Halloween costume.

Yamato had sarcastically said it had been in poor taste, but Sakura had thought it was funny, inwardly giving kudos to the cheeky bastard for poking fun at something so serious.

A contented sigh fell from her lips as she brushed away the last of the debris. That's what she liked about Naruto. He didn't care what others thought. He did what he wanted, even though most times it put him –and the rest of them- in hot water. But reprimands aside, he knew how to live and stayed true to his beliefs. He was as loyal as they come and she had been trying to shake him off for years.

Heading to the next wall ornament of sorts she let spill a few laughs, thinking of his love confession a few days after having come back from Rain –their journey home being shortly after she had turned down an expressionless Sasuke.

One night after a bowl of ramen, Naruto had persuaded her into a walk through the village, saying he needed to work off some of the weight. The moment they had come to the edge of the village, where the monument stood, he had turned to her all pale and sweating with hesitant eyes and even more timid lips.

But something in him had snapped the moment she had let their lips touch in a testing way, the blonde promptly having gone about trying to swallow her face whole in the process.

Sakura chortled some more as she went on to yet another painting.

It had been wet and utterly sloppy and truthfully somewhat disgusting, but he had meant well she knew. At least afterward she was positive about what she felt for him and had gently let him down easy. It wasn't love in the sense that made your knees go weak and your heart flutter. But it was a love all the same… just not the type of love he was looking for.

Naruto had forced a smile on his quivering, watery-eyed features and had tried to trudge off into the night with his back to her, but Sakura hadn't let him. Like she had done to a certain dark haired, young boy in her past, Sakura had wrapped her arms around the blonde from behind.

But this time there were no desperate words, just tender ones, ones that held all the sincerity that filled her petite body in that moment.

With her arms squeezing his body close, she had said, "I love you Naruto, like a _brother_. And even though you and I won't be together like you want, I will always be there for you, never leaving you, never doing anything to purposely hurt you either. I promise."

He had squeezed her arms, choking back his tears as he had simply replied with a hoarse, "Thank you." After that, Sakura had finally let him go and stood there as she watched his form disappear into the shadows.

She really did love the big lug. Sometimes her love was like that for a little brother when he got hurt and she wanted to mend his wounds or protect him, but most times those days he was like an older brother to her, doing things that made her look up to him with admiration.

_Naruto, you'll be Hokage someday. I just know it._

After dusting two more paintings off, Sakura came to one that made her stop and stare.

After wiping off its surface, she stood and gawked at… herself. She was in a pose whose memory seemed to elude her, but then again her eyes were closed in slumber in the picture.

She was lying with her back to the trunk of a tree, the rays of the sun filtering over her half shadowed form as the ends of her short locks gently danced in the air around her shoulders. Head tilted to the side slightly, with her legs stretched out before her, Sakura thought she had never looked so peaceful in her life. A smile tugged at her lips as she thought that was probably what prompted her teammate to capture her essence in the first place.

He _was _always saying that she resembled more of what a woman should be when she kept her mouth shut. A brow twitched at the memory of that condescending voice, but it relented as she continued to gaze at the serene scene before her.

Sai had taken a shine more to Naruto than to herself over time. What with the two of them being males it only seemed naturally really. Brotherly bonds and all that, but she had to admit there were times when she and he seemed to be on the same wavelength as well.

All those times Sai had tried to cheer her up in his own way when she had found herself in a funk, after feeling she wasn't doing enough for their whiskered other half during his training with Yamato and Kakashi. Still looking over the painting before her, Sakura felt a warmth toward the one who, obviously at times, saw her in such a way.

She loved Sai too, but like her affection for Naruto, not in the way a lover would. However, she didn't think of Sai like a brother. It was more like the love of a close friend that rubbed you the wrong way, but still managed to make you want to protect them at times as well.

Even though the ex-ROOT member was highly capable of taking care of himself in battle, outside the blood and death, Sai was much more like a growing baby chick that needed guidance. Because of his warped personality, she found herself standing up for him a time or two from those who just didn't understand –even though his words incited her own wrath more than not.

To her, no one was able to put the hurt on her boys, except herself.

After having thought about her heart to heart of sorts with Naruto, Sakura wondered if Sai had any idea what _he _meant to _her_. He was more than just a bothersome replacement for Sasuke now. Then, she found herself asking the opposite of that spectrum.

_What does he think of us?_

Going on to yet another painting, Sakura's mind whirled through previous conversations with their half-shirted other half. Not surprisingly, she couldn't recall anything that alluded to his thoughts on the matter.

Sakura forced away the sudden tightness in her chest as she finally pried herself from piece of canvas before her. Sai wasn't the type of person to talk about his own feelings. Sakura chalked it up to him probably not understanding them himself. He was still having a hard time determining the meanings of things like bonds or at least she thought.

After sighing, she continued on and on until all the wall hangings in the young man's room were spotless.

Then Sakura started on the pile of self-help books and various manga scattered about the large table in the middle of the room.

Stacking paperbacks and hardbound's in two different piles, Sakura fingers wrapped around a book with its cover being that of Sai and stopped.

Bringing it closer for inspection, the kunoichi saw that the image of Sai was his current self and that the item in her hand was a picture book, not unlike the one she had discovered when they had first met. However, as she flipped through its pages, it did not display that of Sai and his _'brother'_.

Instead, the front was that of Sai and the back was of …Naruto.

A smile overcame her features even as a jealous twinge crept into her chest. Forcing that betraying feeling way, the kunoichi pulled out the lone chair at the desk of sorts and sat down to peruse the treasure's pages.

Like the original version she had seen, Naruto and Sai were fighting enemy shinobi, but this time their opponents were depictions of Akatsuki. But instead of acquiring their weapons and bits of their clothing each time a battle was won, their lips moved…upwards.

The moment Sakura flipped to the middle of the book a hand went to her mouth as she fought back the sudden tears that threatened to spill.

There in the two page layout stood Sai facing outward on the left and Naruto on the right, their lips and eyes smiling with a happiness that only hand drawn characters can. And in the middle of the page, cleanly bisected into two halves by the book's crease, stood herself, smiling wide as she held each of their hand's at her sides. But what really tugged at her heartstrings and made her force back a choked sob was the title at the top, the only title that Sai had ever given his inked works.

Her eyes watered over completely as she hoarsely read the words in her frazzled mind.

_A Shared Love_

Just then a voice in the hall made her quickly close the book as she went about wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.

"Hurry up and stash your stuff will ya? My stomach needs ramen!"

Sakura rolled her bloodshot eyes as she moved to stand just as Sai rounded the corner with his voice speaking to the man behind him, "When does it not?"

Putting his bag down beside the doorway, Sai looked over the woman within with a smile, "Sakura, I see you have decided to extend your maid service to my own apartment. I'm grateful."

Sakura moved forward just as Naruto came up beside him with a beamed greeting of, "Sakura-chan! We were just about to-"

Unfortunately his speech was cut short as strong arms pulled both him and Sai into a crushing hug with either of their surprised faces on the side of Sakura's own.

The tears spilled again as the emotional kunoichi openly wept, holding her boys tight to her chest.

"Uh, Sakura-chan…" Naruto began red-faced.

"Sakura?" Sai asked with a quirked brow, entirely confused.

"Shut up," Sakura croaked as she pulled them closer, "Just" A sob, "just shut up."

She really did love these two…just…maybe a little _too much_.

**_The End_**


End file.
